Data Resource Profile: the Scottish Social Care Survey (SCS) and the Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC).

INTRODUCTION: Linked health care datasets have been used effectively in Scotland for some time. Use of social care data has been much more limited, partly because responsibility for these services is distributed across multiple local authorities. However, there are substantial interactions between health and social care (also known internationally as long-term care) services, and keen policy interest in better understanding these. We introduce two social care resources that can now be linked to health datasets at a population level across Scotland to study these interdependencies. These data emerge from the Scottish Government's centralised collation of data from mandatory returns provided by local authorities and care homes. METHODS: Deterministic and Probabilistic methods were used to match the Social Care Survey (SCS) and Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC) to the Community Health Index (CHI) number via the National Records of Scotland (NRS) Research Indexing Spine. RESULTS: For the years 2010/11 to 2015/16, an overall match rate of 91.2% was achieved for the SCS to CHI from 31 of Scotland's 32 local authority areas. This rate varied from 76.7% to 98.5% for local authority areas. A match rate of 89.8% to CHI was achieved for the SCHC in years 2012/13 to 2015/16 but only 52.5% for the years 2010/11 to 2011/12. CONCLUSION: Indexing of the SCS and SCHC to CHI offers a new and rich resource of data for health and social care research.

The prevalence and general health status of people with intellectual disabilities and autism co-occurring together: a total population study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the population prevalence of co-occurring intellectual disabilities and autism, and its impact on general health status. The study aimed to investigate this, in comparison with the general population. METHOD: Whole country data from Scotland's Census, 2011, were analysed. Descriptive statistics were generated; chi-squared tests were undertaken; and logistic regressions were undertaken both with the whole general population data, adjusted for age and gender, and within the population with co-occurring intellectual disabilities and autism. RESULTS: A total of 5709/5 295 403 (1.08/1000) people had co-occurring intellectual disabilities and autism; 2.58/1000 children/young people and 0.74/1000 adults. The peak reported prevalence was at age 10 years (3.78/1000); 66.0% were male. Their general health status was substantially poorer than for the rest of the population, more so for children/young people, and they had more limitations in their day-to-day activities. Co-occurring intellectual disabilities and autism had odds ratio = 48.8 (45.0-53.0) in statistically predicting poor health. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to report the population prevalence of coexisting intellectual disabilities and autism, and the substantial influence this double disadvantage has on general health status, apparent across the entire life course. This highlights a group in need of wider recognition for whom resources should be focused on and planned for, informed by evidence. Staff in services for people with either of these conditions need to be trained, equipped, resourced and prepared to address the challenge of working for people with this duality. This is essential, to address these substantial health inequalities.

Video game training enhances cognitive control in older adults.

Cognitive control is defined by a set of neural processes that allow us to interact with our complex environment in a goal-directed manner. Humans regularly challenge these control processes when attempting to simultaneously accomplish multiple goals (multitasking), generating interference as the result of fundamental information processing limitations. It is clear that multitasking behaviour has become ubiquitous in today's technologically dense world, and substantial evidence has accrued regarding multitasking difficulties and cognitive control deficits in our ageing population. Here we show that multitasking performance, as assessed with a custom-designed three-dimensional video game (NeuroRacer), exhibits a linear age-related decline from 20 to 79 years of age. By playing an adaptive version of NeuroRacer in multitasking training mode, older adults (60 to 85 years old) reduced multitasking costs compared to both an active control group and a no-contact control group, attaining levels beyond those achieved by untrained 20-year-old participants, with gains persisting for 6 months. Furthermore, age-related deficits in neural signatures of cognitive control, as measured with electroencephalography, were remediated by multitasking training (enhanced midline frontal theta power and frontal-posterior theta coherence). Critically, this training resulted in performance benefits that extended to untrained cognitive control abilities (enhanced sustained attention and working memory), with an increase in midline frontal theta power predicting the training-induced boost in sustained attention and preservation of multitasking improvement 6 months later. These findings highlight the robust plasticity of the prefrontal cognitive control system in the ageing brain, and provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, of how a custom-designed video game can be used to assess cognitive abilities across the lifespan, evaluate underlying neural mechanisms, and serve as a powerful tool for cognitive enhancement.

The application of fibre optics in self-teaching programmes in anatomy.

Self-teaching programmes in the form of tape/slide sequences have been used in the Department of Anatomy and Experimental Pathology, University of St Andrews, Scotland for a number of years and provide students with taped text and colour projections of two-dimensional drawings or diagrams. Such presentations are intended to replicate the lectures. Like anatomy departments elsewhere, anatomical and pathological specimens in museum pots have a fully-labelled photograph alongside to help identify specific anatomical structures. Recently, fibre optics have been introduced to illustrate anatomical features in prosections or museum specimens as a means of overcoming the drawbacks of a two dimensional illustration. A labelled push-button device has been constructed to illuminate optical fibres in order to identify and pinpoint anatomical structures in wet or dry specimens. Pinpoints of bright light are more readily seen than pin labels which also proved to be unsuitable in certain situations, such as within the skull foramina.

Origin of the parasympathetic preganglionic fibers to the distal colon of the rabbit as demonstrated by the horseradish peroxidase method.

The extrinsic innervation of the rabbit distal colon was studied by the use of the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) tracing technique. After injection of HRP, labelled cells were observed in sacral spinal cord segments S2-S5, primarily in the lateral intermediate grey matter. Labelled neurons were also observed in the lateral funiculus and sometimes in the ventral horn. No labelled cells were found in the vagal nuclei, contrary to the reports of earlier investigators. Anterograde transport of HRP resulted in labelling of visceral afferent neurons in dorsal root ganglia, whilst the central processes of afferent neurons entered Lissauer's tract and formed a collateral pathway along the lateral edge of the dorsal horn which terminated in close apposition to labelled preganglionic efferent neurons.